


Hope

by ke_xia



Category: All For the Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-29
Updated: 2016-09-29
Packaged: 2018-08-18 11:27:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8160500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ke_xia/pseuds/ke_xia
Summary: Hope was a dangerous thing. 
Andrew had lost hope so long ago that he’d stopped caring about anything that happened in his life. But it’d begun to come back to him. Hope for a season where the Foxes wouldn’t look like complete fools. Hope that he might the closest to feeling normal that he ever could without his court-ordered medication forcing his mind to float away from him. Hope that perhaps he was not so damaged that hope was a possible thing in Andrew Minyard’s life again.





	

Hope was a dangerous thing. 

Andrew had lost hope so long ago that he’d stopped caring about anything that happened in his life. But it’d begun to come back to him. Hope for a season where the Foxes wouldn’t look like complete fools. Hope that he might the closest to feeling normal that he ever could without his court-ordered medication forcing his mind to float away from him. **Hope** that perhaps he was not so damaged that hope was a possible thing in Andrew Minyard’s life again. 

And in the blink of an eye, in the expanse of three words, hope was ripped away from him again. _You were amazing._

Neil hadn’t been talking to the team; he’d been speaking to Andrew. Why would he only praise Andrew for the game and the title the entire team had won together? It hadn’t felt right when he’d said it, and it hadn’t felt right when he’d lost sight of Neil in the mass of angry bodies outside the stadium. Something was wrong and nothing could be done for it until after… after the crowd had swarmed the team, bodies pressing in so tight that Andrew had had no choice but to get violent. He’d tried to hold back, tried to hurt less than he might have because Neil… Neil wouldn’t have wanted him to hurt people but they were touching him and touch was a violation of the worst kind unless- 

_yes or no?_

_yes or no?_

No. He’d said no and they had ignored him and so he’d gone down swinging.

But when the bodies had cleared and the bright lights of the hospital shone down on the team, they were one body down. Neil was missing. Hope was gone. _Something had been **wrong.**_

So when the FBI came in with the badges and their suits, Andrew had gone in swinging again. _Give me my hope back!_ They’d found Neil. Neil was in the hospital. No one could see Neil until they had finished with him. God only knew what “finished” meant to the FBI but there had been a tightness in his chest that nothing and no one but the one who held his hope could ease. It’d felt like they’d waited for days but in reality, it’d only been hours. The whole team in one room, Andrew and Wymack cuffed together and separated from the group. What the hell had happened? Who had gotten their hands on Neil this time and why? Why would anyone want to hurt one who brought so much **hope** to a group of hopeless fools? 

When they had finally brought Neil to them, Andrew’s hope boiled into a rage and a need to tear someone apart so deep that his hands trembled as he reached out to touch and see what injury had been done. He held his breath and struggled not to explode, but it wasn’t until they were alone later… much later, back at Palmetto State with the truth out between them at last that Andrew felt it possible to share his own truth. He sat still and silent next to Neil, all but swallowing down the cigarette between his fingers as he searched for the words that he had never before dared to speak aloud. Finally, he stubbed the cigarette out on the cement next to him before turning to face Neil.

Nowhere was safe to touch on a man as broken as this one, but Andrew needed to do so. “Yes or no?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper. The moment he was given an equally quiet yes, his touch came featherlight to the back of Neil’s neck, fingertips burying in his hair.

There were more breaths of silence between them, but finally… finally, he carefully turned the other man’s head so Andrew might meet that stunning blue gaze. “Abram.” That meant truth was to follow, something of the utmost importance, and he needed the other to truly listen and hear what he said. “You brought me hope long after I’d given up on it,” he told Neil. “I would rather have my throat cut than have it taken from me again.” Gently, gently, he touched his lips to Neil’s, speaking against them. “We made the choice to keep you. Stop trying to save everyone else at the cost of my hope.”


End file.
